Electric cars charge ahead to nearly double their turf

The share of electric vehicles in new car sales in India expanded at a rapid pace in the first five months of this calendar year, as new products from automakers such as Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, MG Motor and Hyundai boosted sales that had slowed down the previous year.EVs accounted for 4.4 per cent of new car sales in May and 3.7 per cent in the January-May period, compared with 2.5 per cent in 2024 and 2.2 per cent in 2023, show industry data. Automotive industry insiders said the launch of new EV models with longer range and enhanced features, expansion of charging infrastructure and a reduction in price differential with fossil fuel-powered vehicles have boosted demand for electric vehicles in India.Given the pace of customer adoption, they expect annual EV sales in India to top half a million units by the turn of the decade. Sales in calendar year 2024 were 99,165, according to data collated by the Federation of Automobile Dealers' Associations.Customers now have more vehicles to choose from; as many as 16 EV models are currently available to purchase, compared with 10 in 2023. While several of the new vehicles travel a longer distance than the older models on a single charge, the number of charging stations has more than doubled to 26,311 from 12,146 in the same period, as per Bureau of Energy Efficiency data, reducing range anxiety.Industry executives predict the growth to pick up in coming years."India's top five automakers who between them control 65 per cent of sales in the local market all have plans to launch electric cars in the mainstream segment going ahead, which in itself opens up a huge potential for expansion in the segment," Hyundai Motor India chief operating officer Tarun Garg said. The country's second largest carmaker, which launched its first mass market electric car, Creta EV, at the start of the year, itself has scheduled to launch half a dozen models in the electric vehicle segment over the next five years.Hyundai also plans to set up 600 DC fast-chargers across the country by 2032, he said, adding that 89 of these are already operational along major highways including Delhi-Chandigarh, Mumbai-Pune and Bengaluru-Chennai.Tata Motors, the leader in the EV market which is revamping its products for fleet demand and launching premium electric SUVs, also predicts a strong uptick in the segment. The company expects 30-40 per cent of its new car sales to come from EVs by 2030. For the broader industry, the company expects electric cars to account for a fifth of new vehicle sales in this period.